The police authorities have launched special drives and campaigns to stop illegal trade of tobacco products and to make Belagavi district compliant to the Cigarette and other Tobacco Products Control Act (COTPA), 2003, ahead of World No Tobacco Day on May 31.
The district ranked third in collection of fine (Rs.11,19,875) and registration of cases (9,294) under the Act during 2014 in the State.
The police booked 12,003 cases and collected Rs. 13,73,655 as fine between January 2014 and March 27, 2015.
The enforcement drive included ensuring the ban on smoking in public places including bus stand, parks, hotels and restaurants, bakery, shops, cinema halls, government and private office premises; installation of warning signage at these places; prohibition of direct and indirect advertisement and removal of unauthorised tobacco advertisements and imposition of penalty; and check the sale of tobacco products without statutory pictorial warnings.
Alarming statistics
According to the State Anti-Tobacco Cell, smoking kills more people each year than AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.
One Indian dies every eight seconds due to tobacco-related diseases.
One million people die every year and about 70 per cent of them are between the productive age group (30-69) in India.
Forty per cent of cancer cases are tobacco related and nearly 95 per cent of oral cancer occur among tobacco users. Forty per cent of health related problems in the country are due to consumption of tobacco.
Vishal Rao, Director of Institute of Public Health (IIPH), Bengaluru, points out that approximately 28.2 per cent of the adult population in Karnataka consume tobacco in various forms.
More than two lakh tobacco consumers die every year, of which 8.3 per cent are beedi and 4.4 per cent are cigarette smokers and 19 per cent are tobacco chewers.
According to IPH Communication Consultant Praveen Rao S., during January and February this year, 28,611 cases were registered in five police commissionerate areas and six ranges where Rs. 40,61,625 was collected as fine for violations of the various sections of COTPA.
This include 28,254 cases of violation of Section 4 of the Act, 17 cases under Section 5, 208 under Section 6(a), 122 under Section 6(b) and 10 under Section 10.
Of these, the railways have registered 788 cases under Section 4 and collected a fine of Rs. 1,01,100 as fine from the violators, which included individuals and shops,
The drives yielded nearly Rs.1.68 crore as fine from 1,31,750 violators of which 1,27,163 and 3,089 cases were of violations of Section 4 and 5 of the Act, respectively.
The enforcement drive included ensuring the ban on smoking in public places
The district ranked third in collection of fine and registration of cases under the Act in 2014
